Record December sales for US market

The US videogame market enjoyed record sales in December, up 4 per cent on last year and generating revenues of $5.53 billion.

Hardware was central to the successful month, said data analyst the NPD Group, up 16 per cent year-on-year to $2.19 billion. December was only the fourth month of growth in the US, and many industry watchers had expected a decline in sales.

"The big sales this month, particularly on the hardware front, is a positive move for the industry headed into what will hopefully be a recovery year in 2010," offered NPDs Anita Frazer.

Nintendo sold 3.81 million Wii units during the month – beating its own internal estimates of 3 million – while the DS shifted 3.31 million.

The gap between the other console manufacturers was significant, with the PlayStation 3 selling marginally more than the Xbox 360, with 1.36 million and 1.31 million units sold, respectively.

The PSP family sold 654,700 units and the PlayStation 2 333,230.

Similar to the year-end software sales chart, Nintendo had the most titles in the top ten for December, with New Super Mario Bros. Wii selling 2.82 million copies.

Despite the record month for December, overall sales during the year were down 8 per cent.

Console sales for December:

Wii – 3.81 million

Nintendo DS – 3.31 million

PlayStation 3 – 1.36 million

Xbox 360 – 1.31 million

PSP – 654,700

PlayStation 2 – 333,200

Top ten best-selling games in December:

01 New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) - 2.82 million

02 Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - 2.41 million

03 Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 1.79 million

04 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360) - 1.63 million

05 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3) - 1.12 million

06 Wii Play (Wii) - 1.01 million

07 Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 936,100

08 Assassin's Creed II (Xbox 360) - 783,100

09 Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360) - 728,500

10 Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS) - 656,700

Sign up for The UK Publishing & Retail newsletter and get the best of GamesIndustry.biz in your inbox.